Chapter 53 - Rupture at Crush Depth
The mechanical wheel groaned, fighting the monstrous hydraulic backpressure of the Pacific Ocean. The gauge stood at 4,800 feet. Overhead, the primary seam of the conning tower began to leak a high-pressure jet of near-freezing sea spray that cut across the console like razor wire.
"Move, you bastard!" I screamed, digging my heels into the non-skid flooring.
With a deafening *clack*, the mechanical dog disengaged. High-pressure nitrogen reservoirs erupted into the main ballast tanks with a sound like a freight train barreling through a tunnel. The violent downward pitch shuddered to an abrupt, violent halt. For three agonizing seconds, the submarine hung motionless in the black void of the trench, suspended between the gravitational pull of the scuttle thrusters and the desperate buoyancy of compressed gas.
Then the titanium hull violently convulsed.
The bow tilted upward at a brutal forty-degree angle. Loose gear, steel crates, and loose ammunition casings cascaded across the compartment, slamming into the aft bulkheads. I clung to the valve piping with both hands, the tear in my shoulder burning like molten lead.
*WARNING: RAPID ASCENT. HULL STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED.*
We were rocketing toward the surface at an uncontrolled, lethal speed. If the pressure differentials didn't tear the compromised hull plates apart, the sudden decompression when we broke the surface could rupture the remaining air systems and vaporize the crew compartment.
Water continued to flood the lower bilges from the fractured seals. The icy water rose past my knees, then to my waist. I hauled myself up the vertical rungs toward the upper conning tower lock.
Through my tactical earpiece, broken bursts of static began to resolve into speech as we rose out of the thermal layer: "...Arcus! ...do you read? Marcus, this is Miller! We are tracking an emergency blow! Surface vessels stand clear!"
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"Miller!" I gasped, spitting out seawater and hydraulic oil. "The sub is breached! I’m in the upper tower lock! Victor is alive! Do you hear me? Victor Vance orchestrated Tartarus!"
There was a stunned beat of silence from the other end. Before Miller could respond, the world inverted.
